Architects' Gravesites : A Serendipitous Guide

By Henry H. Kuehn

All working architects leave behind a string of monuments to themselves in the form of buildings they have designed. But what about the final spaces that architects themselves will occupy? Are architects' gravesites more monumental—more architectural—than others? This unique book provides an illustrated guide to more than 200 gravesites of famous architects, almost all of them in the United States. Led by our intrepid author, Henry Kuehn, we find that most graves of architects are not monumental but rather modest, that many architects did not design their final resting places, and that a surprising number had their ashes scattered.

Architects' Gravesites offers an alphabetical listing, from Alvar Aalto and Dankmar Adler (Louis Sullivan's partner) to Frank Lloyd Wright and Minoru Yamasaki (designer of the Word Trade Center's twin towers). Each entry includes a brief note on the architect's career and a color photograph of the site. For example, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is buried in Chicago under a simple granite slab designed by his architect grandson; Louise Bethune, the first American woman to become a professional architect, is buried under a headstone inscribed only with her husband's name (a plaque honoring her achievements was installed later); Philip Johnson's ashes were spread in his rose garden, with no marker, across the street from his famous Glass House; and the grave of Pierre L'Enfant in Arlington National Cemetery offers a breathtaking view of Washington, D.C., the city he designed.

Architects' Gravesites is an architectural guide like no other, revealing as much about mortality as about monumentality. Publisher: MIT Press